BenP (00:01.558)
Hey folks and welcome to the Tech World Human Skills Podcast. Today, we're talking about startup funding. Now, I've always heard people talking about angel investors and seed money and series B, but never fully got my head around it. So today, we're gonna go through a startup funding 101 session.
to share his pearls of wisdom, we've got a real expert. He is the founder and CEO of Black Valley, an organisation focused on supporting black led start -ups to access funding to start and scale their business. So please welcome to the show, Lekke Shalouade. Lekke, is brilliant to have you with us, welcome.
Leke (00:54.35)
Thank you so much, Ben. Thank you for having me. Excited to be a part of the show.
BenP (00:58.516)
Well, it's lovely to have you with us. And should we start off, could you give us a brief introduction to your background and what you're up to?
Leke (01:07.436)
Yeah, mean background wise, I actually have an unusual career. I'm sure a of people say that within this space when they come on a podcast like this. I started my career in the non -for -profit sector mainly because I was being driven by wanting to help people and make the world a better place. I was working for a charity here in the UK around social integration, which is about bringing young people from different backgrounds together to equip them with skills to make them more employable in the future.
And I was working in a sales role straight from university. I always say to people, selling to young people is one of the hardest jobs you could do, especially 15 to 17 -year -olds, because they are audience to convince, and they will always tell you the truth. So I learned a lot within that role. Started off by, I guess, front of house, selling at an assembly and then one day morning, presenting to young people about signing up for the program that we offer.
That taught me a lot about public speaking, which I used to be terrified of. And then as things developed, I actually grew within that organization, that role, to become a sales manager and learning lot of skills along the way. And actually, because of the way the organization was set up, got a bit of exposure to program delivery and set up. And then I then made the transition accidentally, actually. I was trying to look for a new role and wouldn't advise people to do this.
But lazily on LinkedIn was applying with LinkedIn easy apply jobs. And I ended up getting an interview for a job with an air tech company, which then became my introduction to the tech world and doing that role for around two years working in business development. Now the really exciting thing about that role was I was exposed to a lot of things around startup. it was a very young organization when I joined fairly about, you know, I think six people when I joined.
And within that period, actually raised a pre -seed round of three million from Lego Ventures. So that kind of introduced me to this access to funding route, you know, going from an idea, you know, from, know, and then seeing an institutional investor invest in that idea really. Fast forward, COVID happened. was on furlough in the UK, had a system called furlough where luckily the prime minister was subsidizing.
Leke (03:29.515)
workers salary. So being on spoiler meant you were not only working for your business, but you were at home and you still got paid. And like most people, I had a lot of free time in my hand to think about what's next for my future and for my career. Whilst thinking about that, you know, the incident around the murder of George Floyd happened, which happened on the state side, but the ripple effect of that, we saw that across the globe, especially being someone of an African diaspora living in the UK.
I wanted to do something to really drive change in the space for the global South, especially people of an African origin, which led to this idea of creating the Black Valley, which I'll talk about a bit more later on. But essentially that inspired what's now a Black Valley. As Ben mentioned, we've gone through different iterations, but essentially we want to make sure that people are able to develop the next technologies that influence the way we see.
and interact with the world. And the best way we're doing that now is by closing that funding gap to people that look like myself
BenP (04:32.342)
Okay, well, thank you so much for your introduction and you've started to sort of nudge us in the direction of funding, know, and so let's get in there. funding, why do you need funding when you start a business?
Leke (04:51.396)
Really good question. And I think there's probably many reasons you need funding when you start a business, but I'll break them down into three areas. Like the first one, they're on like that startup capital. So you've got a great idea and you need to, I guess, take that from an idea to a viable business. And there's a lot of costs associated with that. That cost could look like creating what's called like an MVP, minimum viable product. So something
test whether people actually want what you're creating, right? To validate that the customer actually want the solution to your problem. And that's a genuine pain point they're willing to pay for. There's other costs associated with that. You created this MVP, you need to market that to people. It's not good enough saying you have a solution, but actually how do people find out about the solution? So you need to market and sell that really. as well as that, you probably need
additional costs around the setup, either legal, just setting up the business. So that's a mixture of start -up capital. And that tends not to be that much to do that, but we'll come to maybe more detail on that later on. The other side of things is, I guess,
cost. So once you then start this great thing that you build at that early stage, it's probably yourself, maybe two friends that you started with. Customers are on board onto what you created. It's doing quite well. You need to, guess, operationalize the business and bring in more people to help you to meet the demand basically in the business. And that's probably like a big expense in this stage. You're probably not generating enough revenue to meet that demand. So you need to raise more money.
essentially to meet that operational cost demand and pay for the cost of our religion of people. The third part is probably most common, especially if you're looking to build a kind of business, is an agro business. And that's what a startup ideally should be, is to, I guess, scale the business and attack new markets really. The startup model is quite simple, essentially.
Leke (07:07.183)
essentially is to try and capture as much of the market as possible and to give yourself that competitive advantage. The space moves quite fast. So if you have a new product or a new service, the idea is that other people look into that space. So you want to be the front of us and make sure you're the go -to person when looking at that problem really. And there's cost associated with that. That cost could look like actually we've now,
got a good share of the market in the UK, for example, and we're looking to go to the other side of the world, someone like the States and attract more customers there. There's costs associated with that. There's probably research and design that you need to do around that as well. Then it's probably innovation costs as well that you need to make sure to keep to make sure you keep yourself competitive. So I saw those three areas is probably or three events, you know, what tends to lead to you leading funding of the business.
That initial stage when you just got the business, so that start of costs, when you're starting to maybe add more personal costs, more people to help you grow the business beyond yourself and maybe one or two friends to start the business with. And then expansion, like taking on your markets is probably the best stage.
BenP (08:21.11)
Okay, okay. Now, before we get into the real details of the different types of funding, what's the climate of funding like at the moment? Given the state of the economy, all the things that are happening around the world with elections and government changes and all of that kind of stuff, is it easy to get funding for tech startups and tech scale -ups at the moment?
Leke (08:47.151)
Yeah, great question. But I think it probably depends who you speak to. Overall, the environment has changed. So we started, I started Black Valley in 2020, during the pandemic when interest rates was quite low, which means a lot of people were looking to get more better returns of the money. So there was more money going to private market, especially the VC, the VC stage. So there was more money flowing down to pandas.
BenP (08:51.264)
Okay.
Leke (09:16.783)
Now the macroeconomics has changed. Essentially, there's high interest rates so people could leave the money in the bank and probably get a better return and maybe less risky than making investments into founders of venture investment. Meaning then there isn't that much capital going around. In addition to that as well, we've seen a change
in terms of like, tends to be these trends anyway within VC funding, know, 2020 you could argue like, know, crypto, web three metaverse was a trend. Now we're looking more around AI. So I say that to say two things. it's probably a little more difficult and challenging now to raise money as a founder. The goalpost has probably shifted before you probably could raise
funding based on your idea. know, lot of, especially around the VCs, they are looking for a bit more traction in terms of where you are as a business. And in addition to that as well, I would even argue if you're not raising a high, some sort of AI business around an AI technology business at the moment, or even a business around climate or sustainability, it's probably going to be hard for you to raise money.
in this environment.
BenP (10:45.066)
Really, so very AI and interesting you say sustainability actually focused as well. But those are the two things that everybody wants to fund at the moment. So ideas in other spaces are just a bit harder to get people to chuck their dollars and pounds into.
Leke (11:03.502)
Yeah, exactly that. And like I said earlier, it's a trend, right? You we've seen this trend and it's cycles, right? know, similar to when, you know, crypto was the biggest thing, you know, or Web3 was like, you know, the, the art thing and the focus now. And I would say probably less of a trend is AI and sustainability, right? know, climate is changing and when we run into care. So those two, it's probably a bit more different from the crypto and Web3 space. And by the same time, that is
the focus or where the opportunity seems to lie at the moment, really.
BenP (11:36.726)
Okay, well, should we start to talk about then the different types of funding?
You know, we had a, we did a little prep call, you know, we had a little catch up a few weeks or a month ago, you know, just talking about what we might talk about. And I know, I know nothing about this world. So, do you want to start to talk to us about, know, some of the different, and the things you sort of threw out before when we were talking was grant funding, debt funding, equity -based funding, things like that. So, so do you want to, should we go through some of those? Do you to start with, with grant funding? What is grant funding all about?
Leke (12:11.374)
Yeah, think, you know, thanks for kind of like laying this in really essentially what you've said, I'll probably say there's four, I mean, there's four main brackets I'll put the funding stages on. And the first one that you speak about grant funding, probably the best kind of funding to go to go for really, because there's no, well, there's no cost associated with it. By that I mean, you're not required to pay it back. Typically, this could look like a government
initiated. So here in the UK, where I'm based, we have an organisation called Innovate UK. Essentially, that organisation is responsible for making sure the UK remains competitive when it comes to innovation and empowering the economy really. And there's a book of finance available for startups and scale -ups to access to be able to be competitive and make the UK competitive market as
Typically, the funding rounds that startups can apply for as well. As well as that, there are some private institutions, maybe looking at sustainability, for example, that have a mission aligned with that and they want to make sure there's innovation in that space. And again, they have a pocket of funding available that startup and business could apply for to be able to innovate in that space, really. These are not easy.
Again, most people tend to use third parties to help them write the grants, but again, I think they tend to be quite time consuming. As you can imagine, as a founder, you have a lot of priorities that you need to focus on. maybe, yeah, filling in one of these things can be quite challenging, but it's worth it in that sense, because like I said, you're not required to pay it back. so that's it around grant funding really.
BenP (14:01.406)
Nice. So that's grant funding. What's debt funding? What's debt funding?
Leke (14:08.153)
Yeah, debt funding typically, I would say is going for a loan either from the bank or other private institution. Typically, you're borrowing an amount of capital and there's an interest associated with that. People get scared when you mention low. actually, would probably say this is a cheaper version of how you could raise money for your business really, because the interest rate, yeah,
It's in sport in comparison to when we talk about maybe equity based funding and what the cost of that could look like for your business. The only thing around this, banks are not the most startup friendly, essentially because they're bank lend against risk. And as a startup, you have loads of risk, right? You're still figuring out, don't necessarily have like a historic finance in terms of know, yeah, historic finance.
you don't probably necessarily have assets that the bank could lend against as well. So it's probably a bit more difficult to get funding around this space. There are innovative challenge of banks that lend the space. Previously we asked Silicon Valley Bank, which was quite founder friendly and VC friendly. But now after the crisis that happened around 2022, 2023, they've now been acquired in the UK specifically
HSBC and our core HSB Innovation Banking. So typically they will learn, they're more likely to learn to start up because they understand the need of startups better
BenP (15:45.48)
Yeah, and I guess you just need a really solid business case. They're not going to just give you, know, is a hundred thousand just because you've asked for it. They're going to they're still very much. They're still quite risk averse, aren't they? So they're going to be wanting a solid plan. When how are going to pay it back? What's the business plan to be able to get that kind of level of funding?
Leke (16:07.532)
Exactly.
BenP (16:09.332)
Yeah, yeah, yeah, okay. So grant funding, time consuming, but free money. Debt funding, a bit harder to get if you, because you need to show your, like you say, your track record, your history, but quite cheap in that you don't have to give away bits of your business and that kind of stuff. So that's debt funding. And then the next one, which seems to be more complicated, equity -based funding. Is that the next one of the four?
Leke (16:38.521)
Yeah, equity based funding. this is the most, I guess, popular one, actually, the one that we see most of. I'll probably use the word like is it is the sexiest one is the one most people talk about when they think about assessing the finance. To put it simply, this is giving us take away your business to an investor in return for capital. What that means essentially is, for example, I say, you know, I love what you're doing with this postcard, podcast, and I see the potential.
within this business and you I speak to you and I reach out to you reach out to me and I give you 10k for 10 % of your business and there's probably a lot of things that I've considered on my side a lot of things that makes it more I guess a viable alternative for you because one 10k could mean you're able to buy better equipment we speaking about equipment earlier you know pay for like more marketing to make you more to reach better audience and actually that would get you to next level
For me, I'm seeing this opportunity. I could see a potential about Ben being the next Stephen Butler, and that's like the potential of the podcast. And I believe my return will better in the future. What I would say about equity funding as well, there's something called smart money. So not all money are good money. Essentially, you want an investor that has a value as well. I'll say, when you're going for funding, it's not
the cost in terms of the equity you're giving away, actually, what can the investor add to your business? You know, they're strategic investors, right? So for example, we're using the example of a podcast, right? Does the founder like have very good strong media, investor have very strong media presence that they could connect you to? Or are they someone that's very savvy with like, you know, things like TikTok that could make you go viral? And you know, there are value that they could add to your business introductions as well that they could make for
BenP (18:31.45)
And that's what you see lots on the TV shows, isn't it? So things like Dragon's Dane, Shark Tank, those kind of things, where they're trying to get investors that have got real skills to come into the business. It's not just the cash they want, it's the skills as well.
Leke (18:45.795)
Yeah, exactly. like, you know, because the business is about how can I get from A to B and the B is the scaling part, And there's, you know, the in -betweens, like, what do you know, the connections that you need. And actually, if you get someone that can give you the money, I'm sure you have to navigate how to get to B. That's the ideal scenario, really. And it's a lot more efficient for you because you're less likely to make the mistake, which is kind of costly.
and you win on time as well, you get there quicker.
BenP (19:20.724)
And so.
You know, anyone can do that, can't they? So I guess maybe for some businesses when they start off, they might get family and friends, you know, that have got some cash, the bank of mum and dad, whoever it is that might have a bit of cash that they can seed the business and get it going. So it feels like that's one route where you can do it. But then it also then seems, and this is the bit where I don't know much about it now, is then you've got the more serious way, like where you are getting venture capitalist angel
investors, you've got things like series A, series B, series C. These are the bits that I don't understand where it feels a bit more serious in terms of the equity investors. could you maybe talk us through how does the serious side, like when it's not your mum and your dad and your grandma and your buddy and your friends that are giving you and you're giving them bit of, know, some shares in the business, how does it work when it's the serious side of equity -based funding?
Leke (20:18.885)
Yeah, no, great question. What I'll say about equity -based funding, like with family and friends, I think that's a good way to, for those that have like, know family and friends that are quite high -network individuals that could invest in your business, that is the perfect way to start. There's two risks associated that you need to make sure you communicate that with them, that their money could, they could lose all their money and that needs to be cleared.
probably that weight that you need to be comfortable carrying. Are you going to be responsible for the remortgaging of your parents' house and then not having that money back kind of thing. So think there's a seriousness around that as well, essentially. But back to your point around then, actually beyond that, right? The first level actually is angel investors, right? And actually this is the one that's really important again.
is one that, no one typically, actually, I say no one, but typically no one walk around with a sign on there saying I'm an angel investor. And the smart way actually is to someone's actually shared with me recently, actually, who can you convert to be an angel investor in terms like, do know any high net worth individuals within your circle that you could pitch the idea to them about investing your business? Some people probably are, you know, 50k plus sitting in an account.
They're not actually getting that much return for it in a bank. you know, they know you Ben, they know you, what you're doing is great. They believe in the idea actually. And there's probably different reasons why they will invest in you. One is they want to learn what about what the space that you're building. They're really intrigued and they get to go on that journey with you. Those are like, you know, most investors, angel investors, actually sit in that port of like, I want to go on this journey with this founder. I want to learn from them. I want to learn about this space, right? And they still want the return on their investment. So which is great.
once you've, got some angel investors in place and then you move to, I guess, the area that you said around like serious and what we probably classify as your first institutional investment, right? this is again, there are stages, it's probably almost like a funnel in a way. and it doesn't necessarily flow as easily, but for ease of like explanation, you are the first things on that funnel, which is your, your precede investment.
Leke (22:41.238)
And this, there are most investors probably have like different bucket that they're focused on. Some investors will probably focus on the stage round and the pre -seed stage. Others might focus all across the route. The pre -seed investors will have, I guess, their sweet spot and they typically write a smaller check size. And at this round, you're looking to raise maybe up to 300k. And what you're trying to do is that first thing I spoke about, which is validate your business idea. like do your.
first MVP and validate that customers want to pay for it really. So there's a lot of risk at this stage, right? And essentially that's what that stage looked like. In terms of how you find these investors and probably apply for everyone else, typically most people probably join accelerator programs or do some research online. That's like what investors are focusing on this pre -seed stage. And it's also important to understand
what sector you're focusing on because most investors are not set to agnostics. They have the sweet spot as I mentioned. So some investor might only be looking at, know, climate tech, for example. that's the thesis. So thesis is basically the investor's idea of how they would make their return. And they have an area they believe that's the best opportunity and that's expertise to add value in that space. So that would be
Any questions around that before?
BenP (24:10.174)
And typically, well yeah, so typically, well, so you give away a portion of your business and then all future profits are then returned and dividend payments and all those sorts of things. But how much of your business do you typically give away in a pre -seed round? Is there a rule of thumb?
Leke (24:30.097)
Yeah, good question. So people say you try to stare around the 20 % to 25 % mark every round, actually. But it gets complicated a little bit, which I'm not going to into details around, but because you can get diluted as an early stage investor. you're, because you invest 10 % stake in a business, doesn't mean that 10 % stake in the business stays 10 % all throughout
the exit of the business, we'll talk about in a second. So when a new round of investment comes in, unless you add a new money, your initial 10 % will get diluted essentially because the mass gets a bit complicated because the value of the business has increased. So your 10 % reduced as a result
BenP (24:59.156)
Yeah. Yeah.
BenP (25:18.496)
Okay, so pre -seed very early. What's the next phase?
Leke (25:24.485)
Yeah, the next stage is now seed. So which means you've validated the idea and now you kind of want to, I guess, acquire customers within this space really. This tends to be like a chunkable size of investment and this we're looking up to three, up to two million in this space and it vary from different companies.
I say up to 2 million, but you do have maybe your OpenAI or like a really hot startup that raises 100 million plus as a seed funding. So those are very special, special case. Recently, one of the co -founders of OpenAI, he started another AI business and he raised ridiculous amount as a seed funding stage, think around like 200 plus.
Those are typically unusual, but as a general rule of thumb, you're looking at up to 2 million to acquire customers and build, so move away from the MVP and build the actual product, basically.
BenP (26:34.262)
Okay, so seeding is basically scaling out. We've got a working MVP and now we wanna take this to market and we need that money to really start to scale that a little bit.
Leke (26:44.367)
Yeah, I'm building the actual, so away from the MVP, the actual product in itself.
BenP (26:48.894)
Yeah, okay, so the working, the actual working product and scaling it, which then starts to take us to then I hear about this series A, series B, series C stuff. What's all that about?
Leke (27:02.898)
Yeah, I mean, series A, series B, series C, the one word to summarise all this round is just, I guess, scaling. It's like, essentially, I'm reaching new markets and you're reaching different, I guess, checkpoints at this stage, really. Series A tends to be typically, again, I'll say, 2 to 15 million at this stage, depending on, like,
the business. What you're looking to do at this stage is make key ions into the business. So maybe you're starting to look at like senior executives at this stage, people with different expertise, people that may be taking the business from certain stages, different stage, you're looking to go into new markets, as we mentioned earlier, like, you know, previously operated in the UK, quite small market, they're looking to address the US market. So you're bringing a go to market person that understand that understand
how to take, know, how to go across the pond really. So that's kind of what you're doing at this stage really. Series B, you're probably looking at, you know, 25 million plus, Series C 50 million plus. But again, you know, your milestones basically, that milestones could look like, you know, capturing more new markets at this stage, you know, almost maybe developing like a moat around your business. This could look like you're acquiring your competitors in a way.
to add like, I mean, maybe like a Facebook, for example, acquiring what's now called Meta, acquiring Instagram, like you're building this wraparound support ecosystem within your business that makes it harder for everyone else in this space to compete against you, really.
BenP (28:49.942)
Okay, and so, series ABC, and does it tend to finish at series C, or what happens after series C?
Leke (29:00.662)
Some startups might do multiple rounds. So there could be a series D, there could be a series E. Even within rounds, there could be like an extension round. There could be a down round as well. You ideally don't want a down round. There could be a down round in like a typical market like this. But essentially in a smooth sailing round, could series A to series B, series C, depending on like how hot the market is, how the business is.
then you have what we call the exit event. And this is kind of like where we would probably talk about a little bit
BenP (29:33.492)
Yeah, and this I think is really interesting because, so I, a couple of years ago, started my own business and I started it with a view of this is the mission and this is what I want to try and do, this is the product I want to try and sell and all of that kind of stuff.
When we were chatting around this topic before, you were saying to me that everybody else is thinking about the exit event. Right from the beginning, these investors are thinking, right, what's your exit event? And I found this quite surprising. So yeah, can you talk to us, what is the exit event? And then what are the different sort of approaches that people are sort of aiming for?
Leke (30:16.356)
No, good question. Again, as mentioned earlier, there are different types of funding. think as a founder, you need to decide at the beginning, right? What kind of business do you want to build? And that's a really important question. Not everyone actually might have the desire to go down the venture or to do like, you know, a really high growth business. An example, like, or of a startup on steroids would be something like Uber. And if you look at the Uber journey in terms of like, you know, how many markets Uber operates in, how long it takes for Uber to be
actually profitable. think Uber became profitable recently. Then we have, guess, once you've received VC funding, the investor has an interest in your company. And that interest in your company is for them to make the return on the investment that they put in your business. And then for us to really understand this, we need to understand how does like, you know, the venture game work in a way. So typically, a VC fund, let's take a 10 million.
So maybe at the seed stage, that investment pre -seed to seed stage will have let's say 10 million to invest in a startup. And they will typically maybe write 300 to 500K checks and they might write about 20 checks within the life cycle of that fund. For every startup they're investing, they need that startup to return the old fund and more. The assumption is a lot of the startups will not work out like, but actually one in 10.
return the fund size and more. The VC needs to be able to prove to what's called the LP, so limited partners, which is where the VCs get their money from, that they're able to find great opportunity like your business, and they're able to then return that money back and get more money to, I guess, carry on that game really. So what does that mean for you as a startup? That means that that VC has a timeline, you know, they're looking like within the next eight years.
your business needs to have an exit in the event really ideally from when that money went in, maybe at the early stage. And obviously depending on what stage the VC is acting, was like, you know, whether they are the C stage or series B plus stage, that cycle is probably shorter for them as well. So talking about a C stage investor, probably looking at eight years. So if they invest money into you, typically they want something to happen. You can't just hold onto the business and keep plugging and know, generate
Leke (32:38.603)
be a profit this year because they don't get anything from that. There's no dividends being paid out to them as a fund, right? So something needs to happen that they get their money back. And there's three ways something happens.
Leke (32:58.022)
will not great outcome for you as a founder. You got bust, which means your business is one of the nine ones that fail. But at least they could write that often focus their attention on different things, right? And I know you probably will talk about that a bit more, but that's an excellent, that needs to happen. The second one is &A, you get acquired by different business. We spoke about maybe some like Instagram getting acquired by a meta earlier.
BenP (33:27.262)
Yeah okay so some other big company, Google, Microsoft, Amazon, decide you're the company that's got this niche wrapped up and they're just going to come and acquire
Leke (33:27.535)
That could be a great event.
Leke (33:38.425)
Yes, that could be for a significant amount or actually that could not be that much. So it depends on like, you know, the rationale around that. So that's probably less favorable to the investor. In some cases, it could still be a win because, you know, depending on like the size of that &A really in that case. The next stage, I guess, is like the dialing of like of a VC investment really, which is like your IPO, you
most VC funds or most VC investment, you need to have that hunger and that desire to build an audacious business that could become a unicorn, which is a company worth like one billion clubs. And know, if VC is looking at that, because that's in terms like fund mathematics, that's when they start seeing the return on the fund, on the fund really. And IPO is an initial public offering where shares in your business is being set in the public market and everyone that has shares in the business then get some money back.
BenP (34:36.488)
And so that's, you you can list on the NASDAQ, the London Stock Exchange, whoever it might be, you go and now you're a publicly traded company.
Leke (34:45.677)
Exactly and you know, as you probably could imagine, not a lot of business get to that stage.
Leke (34:55.217)
And I think that needs to be emphasized really. If you want to go down this VC route, you have to have an hunger and a desire as a founder to really want to build something that's a beast of a company, I don't think not everyone is built that way. But if you are and you have that desire, have that hunger, the reward is risk reward as well. Could be incredible. You could change.
the tragedy of not just your life but the people around
BenP (35:27.05)
Yeah, Okay, this has been really interesting. no, carry on, carry on. One last thing, carry on.
Leke (35:30.307)
And, and,
Leke (35:35.41)
impact as well. think we've focused so much on like the financial returns at this stage, right? You know, at all this stage of the company, like in theory, the bigger the business, the more impact you're making, right? You know, a business that gets to IPO, this is serving more people, solving more problems, more like that problem for a lot more people really. So again, I use the example of Uber, right? Uber stayed in the US. Not like it wouldn't have been able to like attack the market in Africa, attack the market in the UK and
actually the, when we think about Uber now with, know, or getting a taxi, Uber is probably the first thing that comes to mind. So that's impact, right? You know, it's changed the way we think about transport. It's changed the way we get from A to B really like, and it's moved now, know, innovation moving to like food. And now you can potentially even book your flights on Uber. So like, that, is that idea of like creating something from your head and like, you know, creating solution for billions of people across the globe. So we are focusing the money, but the impact potential as well as the...
BenP (36:33.024)
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, Lekke, we are running fast out of time. This has been really interesting and I've learnt loads from this, so really brilliant, really brilliant. What would be your key takeaways as we start to summarise, Lekke? What would you want people to take away from this?
Leke (36:51.333)
Yeah, great question.
I the takeaway for someone with an idea is actually there are options out there for you to get investment in your business and don't be scared.
of the idea of getting investment to your business. Especially speaking from an underrepresented founder background, we're more likely to try and bootstrap our business, whereas we might have a great idea and it's important to go out there and find the funding to make sure we're able to not just, I use the word suffer as a founder, to really build this business, know, not paying yourself, not being able to do things and like actually earning money and putting back the business when actually the way to grow the business is to use other people's money. That's what funding is, you're using.
other people's money to grow your business. I think it's really important for people to take one in their way. If you have a great business and the business works, there are people looking for the opportunity to invest in your business. For them, they're making more money and two, they want to be part of your journey. They want to create the next big thing as well. And they want to be part of your legacy. So it's important for you to go out there. And my second point is there are different ways to raise funding and myself included. think we are fascinated by this VC route. It's not for everyone.
and you should make sure you understand what you're signed up for, Also, in your podcast recently, I talked about, know, sometimes founders end up building a cage for themselves. I hear for some people, it's the initial amount of money might be getting their company acquired or sold for like three million, four million. That would be a life changing amount for them. For a VC investment, that's a terrible outcome. So if you understand me, actually.
Leke (38:51.791)
before it's like designing a business. It's like designing your life with actually what kind of business you want to build. What does like success looks like to me? Because there is a lot of noise out there and don't be distracted by those noise. So first one is possible for you to get funding and a lot of people want to want to fund and be part of your journey to be really clear about actually what kind of business you want to build and what the success look like for you really.
BenP (39:16.328)
Yeah, brilliant. And so as I reflect on it, I've learned loads of stuff from this. And I think this idea of grant funding, free funding, government giving you money to start up, or getting money from the bank, the debt funding, and then that equity funding, and then just the different rounds, how it all works. And then just this idea of an exit event. I'd not really considered how important that was as you start to get into equity funding. So absolutely fascinating. So thank you for making all this so accessible and so
Final thing, if people are interested in the things that you've said, interested in Black Valley and want to get in touch, how can people get hold of
Leke (39:58.031)
Yeah, great question Ben. I'm quite visible on LinkedIn. So lekechelouade, L -E -K -E, first name, think maybe only a few people call that. Our website is www .blackvalley .co play on the word Silicon Valley, blackvalley .co .uk. Or you can actually drop us an email, info at blackvalley .co .uk. If you're a black business looking to raise some funding, we'd love to hear from you. If you're an investor looking to connect with some great, exciting black founders.
right here in the UK. We'd love to hear from you as
BenP (40:29.888)
Brilliant. Well, Leké, there's only one thing left for me to do and that is to say thank you so much for taking the time out of your busy day to talk to us. It's been brilliant. Thank you so much, Leké.
Leke (40:41.531)
Thank you Ben, really great. Enjoy being part of the podcast. Thank
